Catastrophic Damage from Dam Break Floods
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Utah State University DigitalCommons@USU Reports Utah Water Research Laboratory January 1986 Catastrophic Damage from Dam Break Floods L. Douglas Jemes Al-Hassan Sumani Melanie L. Bengston Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/water_rep Part of the Civil and Environmental Engineering Commons, and the Water Resource Management Commons Recommended Citation Jemes, L. Douglas; Sumani, Al-Hassan; and Bengston, Melanie L., "Catastrophic Damage from Dam Break Floods" (1986). Reports. Paper 319. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/water_rep/319 This Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Utah Water Research Laboratory at DigitalCommons@USU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Reports by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@USU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Catastrophic Damage from Dam Break Floods by L. Douglas James AI-Hassan Sumani and Melanie L. Bengston Utah Water Research Laboratory Utah State University Logan, UT 84322-8200 November 3, 1986 IJ-• '-I! , CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE FROM DAM-BREAK FLOODS by L. Douglas James Ai-Hassan Sumani and Melanie L. Bengtson Utah Water Research LaboratoLY Utah State University Logan, UT 84322-8200 November 3, 1986 I CATASTROPHIC DAMAGE FROM DAM-BREAK FLOODS I. PROBLEM DEFINITION AND STUDY PURPOSES Even as technological advances improve soc ial weI fare, more people are exposed to disastrous technological failures. The standard of living in the United States is higher than ever before, but our country also stands in significant danger of disaster events of far er scope than any previously experienced. The flooding that would be caused by the failure of a major dam ~s one example. Asses sment 0 f these low-prob ab i 1 ity/high-consequence event s requires quantification of both probabilities and consequences. Considerable work has been done on the former (Rowe 1977, Waller and Covello 1984), but relatively little attention has been given to estimating the consequences of disasters that impact thousands of people. Society has increasing cause to plan against a really large disaster event where losses of life may approach millions and economic damage may be in billions of dollars. This study may be viewed as an exploratory venture in moving from the occupant or building to the community and (to a lesser degree) on to the regional scale in damage estimation. When a few properties are damaged by flood, fire, or strong wind, the repair requirements can be tabulated and used to est imate the loss (whether economic or expanded to a more broadly based utility function) to the occupant or owner. The risk expectations of individuals and communities, and consequent ly most risk reduct ion and risk avoidance programs, are based on losses at this scale. When thousands of propert ies are damaged, the same tabulation and estimating relationships would severely understate the loss to the community. The lo'ss from the simultaneous dest ruct ion of 1000s of homes exceeds 1000 times that from the destruction of just one. The ability of an economy to "self insure" by moving resources from individuals who are not impacted to those who are limited by repair capac ity and mobi 1 ity constraints. The impact has been scaled upwards from the occupant to the community level. Exactly what causes this magnification? How large is it? How might one estimate the amount to expect from a given catastrophe? What magnification magn i tude might one expect from a major dam break? The purpose of th is exploratory study is to review historical records on catastrophes and their impacts, identify the major impacting processes, and examine the literature on these processes in order to: 1. Conceptual ize the principal processes that could magnify disaster losses resulting from a dam-break flood, 2. Identify indicators to watch in determining which processes wi 11 be activated and estimate how much magnification will occur, 3. Approximate the order of magnitude of magnification likely to be caused by the worst conceivable dam break scenario in the United States, 2 4. Suggest scal ing studies for quantifying catastrophic loss for water resources planning. The approach is to probe the spec.i fics of what losses are and how they occur during a catastrophe. Past efforts to define catastrophe have largely overlooked the dynamics of the interacting processes over the duration of a disaster and the changes in these interact ion associated wi th larger scale d i sas ters. The goal is to expand from past conceptual i zat ions featuring soc ietal recognit ion (Rowe 1977) to a reconnaissance assessment to st imula te critical thinking on the processes causing upwards scaling of losses from low probability/high-consequence events. Ideas are offered for future study rather. than refined for scientific scrutiny. II. A FRAMEWORK FOR ASSESSMENT A. Time frames. Our starting assumption is that the magnification largeLy results from dynamic synergistic interaction of disaster impact processes. According to our characterization, losses (active impacts) and recovery (reactive impacts) occur over time. The event begi.ns with a massive negative impact during a relatively short period. Its aftermath is extended by positively reinforcing feedback mechanisms (Forrester 1970) over a much longer period of continuing deterioration. Recovery begins during the event and reduces and eventually eliminates the losses through positively reinforcing feedback mechanisms. At the end, the restoration may even improve the community. The damage occurs as physical, environmental, and social system fail to function in their accustomed manner. Losses are summed over a disaster period from the beginning of the event until the completion of the recovery. The individual losses stem from lost income or lost utility with respect to environmental or social values within this disaster period. Where justified, they can be ameliorated by repair or restoration (should the property be beyond repair) investments. The negative dynamic interactions add to the losses or constrain the recovery during the disaster period. The positive interactions work in the opposite direction. B. Scaling. Impact magnification is analogous to scale effects in physics, meteorology, and hydrology in that the same principles can be applied for a better understanding of the upward sc al ing of socio-economic impacts. In physics, for example, subatomic, atomic, pore, basin, continental, and planetary studies address different processes. Soc io-economic ally, the processes to consider in estimating the losses from not being able to use and the costs for repairing a damaged bui Lding are inappropriate for estimating the. cost of J;"estoring a devastated city. Whether one is dealing with physical or socio-economic systems, 1. The operational forces and interactions vary with scale. Atmospheric circulation occurs at molecular, 'storm, and frontal scales. People experience events as individuals and as members of communities, regions, and nations. Economic interactions concentrate in defined trade areas. 3 2. Activity at smaller and at larger scales have consequences at the scale of primary interest. For example in estimating catastrophic loss to a community, one must consider building repair costs at the property scale and the state of the economy at the regional scale. While the term "magnification" is introduced as a multiplier, the full concept is for it to be a generic term that describes the increase in unit losses as one goes from a disaster to a catastrophe without implying that the losses are uniformly larger. Some types of losses may decrease or disappear. Others become larger. Processes that did not even exist at a smaller scale emerge and then begin to dominate at a larger scale. Experience in the physical world suggests that larger scale processes are slower and continue over a longer time period. For example, physics tells us that processes occurring at large spatial scales take long per lods atom movements are in units shorter than microseconds and stars hardly change their positions in millennia. [n fact, the time dimension is useful in classifying factors contributing to catastrophic or super catastrophic losses. Also, at these larger scales, the longer time frames cause the dynam ic feedback mechanisms to extend further into the future, become associated with greater uncertainties, and have a greater spread in the probability distribution of the potential impacts. During larger scale events, losses and repairs move into different frameworks. Business and government communities are "damaged" in different sorts of ways than are buildings; their failure to function properly inflicts different sorts of losses, and they require different repair "measures." Additional interactions must be considered in assessing the effects on regional, state, and national economies and politics. C. Definitions. [n order to examine loss "magnification," one must est a b 1 Ls h s om e bas i c terms of reference. The following terminology is offered: 1. Disaster. The dictionary definition of a disaster is "any sudden unfortunate event." This study focuses on dam-break events. However, because dam-break catastrophes are rare (only 12 11 fe-taking events in the United States since l870), other "natural" disasters were also examined to add to the data base. For this purpose, a natural disaster is defined as one originating in natural sources as opposed to one caused by people, accidentally or purposefully. 2. Dam-break. An event in which the failure or overtopping of a dam passes a large volume of water downstream and produces a severe flood. This study focuses on dam breaks associated with major hydrologic events. The large areas impacted by heavy rains are likely to give hydrologic dam-breaks larger magnification than structural dam breaks. 3. Damage. The dictionary definition of damage is "injury or harm that impairs value or usefulness." As now generally accepted in water resources planning (Water Resources Council 1980), value will be examined in three dimensions: 4 a.